Ideas related to the big picture of teaching and learning as well as reflections from the learning process.
One of the best things that I heard while at the Midwest Google Summit was said by Krista Moroder (@edtechcoaching) when she was discussing the Ed Tech Challenge (http://www.edtechchallenge.com/). She stated that one way to decide whether to use technology as a tool or not depends on it making things more efficient or effective. I…
A few years back I saw a video of Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann that got me started on the path towards a Flipped Classroom. My school was already a 1:1 school, every student had a white macbook laptop, and I was still trying to find a way to change my teaching style to better…
I used to have hanging in my classroom a piece of paper that said “Failure is an option, failure to learn is not an option.” The purpose of this was to help show to my students that they were allowed to make mistakes and even fail along the way. We are not perfect creatures and…
One of the best things that I did this year was attend a couple of Ed Camps. Before last spring I had never attended an Ed Camp or really even heard too much about them. I would see some stuff on Twitter about them but didn’t think too much about it. Luckily I had some…
(I posted this on my Google Site that I made for my job at Ames High School but wanted to also post this here.)While at the Midwest Google Summit this past week at the Wisconsin Dells in Wisconsin, I had the extreme fortune to listen to Krista Moroder. Krista is a Director of Learning for Instructional…
This Sunday I was reading the local paper and I was kind of confused. The majority of the front page of a large newspaper in the state was dedicated to a story about goats. Now I know the story was more than just about goats, but if you looked quickly at the page all you…
As of August, 2013 I am no longer a classroom teacher. I do not have my own set of students, class periods, study halls, grades, parent/teacher conferences or many other things but I do have a whole new adventure in front of me. I am hoping to blog often about my journey as a Technology…
One of the things we can easily change now with technology, is to turn what is normally a very disengaging lesson of watching a video into one with more engagement and learning. How many times have you walked by a classroom and saw the lights off with the glow of the screen shining off of…
I was very excited this year as I finally got to attend all three days of ITEC. I attended a workshop on Sunday dealing with “Emerging Technologies to Assist Struggling Learners” which was presented by Tammy Lind. I found out about a lot of great tools and methods to assist struggling learners as well as…
This past Saturday I was down in Des Moines for my second Edcamp. Edcamps are awesome in that it is a time for educators to come together to discuss and share ideas about education. There is no set schedule, no list of presenters, definitely no handouts but there is a lot of learning and collaborating…
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